Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (Public Law 84-627), was enacted on June 29, 1956, when Dwight D. Eisenhower signed this bill into law. Appropriating $25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles (66,000 km) of interstate highways over a 20-year period, it was the largest public works project in American history to that point.
Can you name one highway construction company? What about a maker of 18 wheelers? What about a national restaurant chain that would never have been but for highways?
I don’t know but I doubt private industry was anywhere near organizing the construction of a national highway system in 1956. We’ve left the deregulated telecom industry to build something that isn’t really in their best interest, a federated internet infrastructure. Their best interests can and would come later. Meanwhile, we fall behind.
Notes. Permalink. Mon, Jul 7th 2008, 7:25 PM (∞).
